Minister of State (I/C) Youth Affairs and Sports & Information and Broadcasting Col Rajyavardhan Rathore, along with the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot, today felicitated the winners of Asian Para Games, 2018. 72 Indian athletes won the medals in the Asian Para Games, 2018 held in Indonesia recently, which is the largest Indian medal tally in the games. With 15 gold, 24 silver and 33 bronze medals, India was placed ninth in the overall medal tally. The medal winners were given cash prizes.Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot congratulated the winners for their achievements and bringing laurels to the country. He said that his Ministry has been working for enabling and empowering the Divyangs, and superb performance at international sports fora inspires others also.
He said the Ministry is already running a Sports Centre of excellence for differently abled and work is in progress to set up four more such centres in Punjab, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.Col Rajyavardhan Rathore said the achievements of these para athletes has made the country proud. He said that their extraordinary grit and determination has been the key to success, as they had to surpass umpteen problems and hardships. He said that the Central Government in 2014 had decided to give the same award and recognition to para athletes as was being given to able-bodied athletes. He said that the Department of Sports and the Government of India will always provide full support to the Divyang athletes in their efforts to achieve success in their lives.